There’s a secret to Donte Montgomery’s passion for basketball.
It runs in the family. In fact, it is the family.
“I’ve got my own student section,” Montgomery said after his 23-point showing in Oak Lawn’s 56-47 victory over TF South in the Spartan gym on Jan. 17. “There’s probably 10 people (from his family) here every game. I’ve got to put on a show for them. I don’t want everybody coming to see me and disappointing them.”
The rest of the Spartans faithful were also delighted by his night, which included four rebounds and a pair of blocked shots. The numbers would have been higher but for the Red Wolves’ deliberate offense.
“That’s my third time playing them so I’ve gotten accustomed to how they play,” Montgomery said. “We knew if we played our style of play, we could come out with the win.”
The Red Wolves (9-9, 5-1 South Suburban Blue) were hanging with Oak Lawn (13-6, 5-1 South Suburban Red) for longer than Spartans coach Jason Rhodes would have preferred. Oak Lawn led 24-21 at the half and came out after the intermission with a surprise: a 1-3-1 zone.
“Not something that we had practiced this week, but I did see it on film a little bit and they didn’t look super comfortable,” Rhodes said of the Wolves’ offense against it. “Give them credit with their possessions lasting 50 seconds, almost a minute sometimes. I thought our defense was pretty good, but then they’d set a middle ball screen and we’d kind of break down.”
The zone acted as a bulwark in the middle, which eventually paid off in steals — three by Montgomery — and fast-break baskets for Oak Lawn.
“We knew if we pulled it out of our back pocket we could execute it well,” Montgomery said of the zone.
An 11-0 run across 3:27 into early in the fourth quarter made the difference. Montgomery scored three points in the outburst, Jack Dempsey four. Their 1-2 punch added up to 34 of Oak Lawn’s 56 points.
“We kind of flow and built off each other with different strengths,” Dempsey said. “We come together. Tonight, we found TF South’s weakness and went to the 1-3-1. They really didn’t know what to do with it.”
Montgomery scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half, furthering his trip into 1,000-point territory. He became the eighth player in program history to reach that milestone when he did so during a win over Oak Forest on Jan. 14.
He could end up fourth or fifth on the career Spartan ledger in his three years of play following his transfer from Marist after his freshman year.
“He can take a shot pretty much every possession if he wants to,” Rhodes said. “He’s become a much better playmaker, and you saw a couple really nice passes today.”
That’s my nephew. It’s in his DNA!!!!!